The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018, Fede Álvarez)

So, this is the adaptation of the author's latest book. I'd added the original foreign trilogy to my Netflix queue once upon a time, still haven't gotten around to those, so I've only seen Fincher's version of Dragon Tattoo. Claire Foy (The Crown) takes over as Lisbeth Salander. Found it pretty neat that she read the books in her 20s and connected with the character. It was cool seeing an older version of the character. I haven't read the books, but it made for nice storytelling.

It started slowly for me. The tattoo was a neat design, with shots of Salander definitely not as explicit as Rooney Mara in her birthday suit. Not sure if that was Claire's objection or if the director is anti-nudity.

The cinematographer, Pedro Luque, made for a pleasant experience for me as the movie got into its rhythm. The movie did take a while to gain my interest. Once we got more "Bourne"-esque with hackers, bad guy specialists, etc, it piqued my interest. The bridge scene and wintry elements was pretty cool. Not sure about the river scene, but hey, it's a movie. I do know that ice gets pretty thick in some places of the world.

The themes were poignant. Sad for sure, sucks those things happen to kids.

Story got quite contrived with lots of good breaks coming through at certain moments, but that's almost the norm for movies these days. The pacing picked up for me as it went on, and overall I did enjoy the film. I would give it a 6 out of 10. Hokey baddies, nothing spectacular, slightly above average for me. The twist-heavy, "one step ahead" style of these spy movies gets old.

I liked Foy's performance overall and the black dude was cool. I'm pretty sure the child is Penguin's mute pupil from Gotham so that was kind of neat. No other star power really, but I enjoyed the movie with the almost Dark Knight spec ops tech. There was a mission on one of the Call of Duty games that had similar "eyes in the sky" tech helping you take out sentries around a hostage. Never really seen any movies showcase that before, really.

I don't think it is as good as Fincher's, but I am curious to watch that one again and then this one after perhaps one day down the road, to see if they connect or not. I know that Fincher & Craig & Mara were trying to keep that adaptation going for another movie or so, and then it fell into production hell, ultimately being scrapped with the new novel coming out, starting afresh, etc.

What did you think of it? If you've seen Fincher's or the original trilogy, how does it compare? Would you recommend seeing the original trilogy? I think I originally gave Fincher's a 7 out of 10. It had some downsides as it went on, but I think it's a bit better overall. Mara was more memorable, but this was a nice look for Foy instead of her dainty "British gal" shtick.

Roque Baños made a pretty nice-sounding musical composition, too. Winter movies are refreshing sometimes. I will also say that it was a relief to not need subtitles, despite all the accents. Can't remember where it was set, but normally movies with accents are hard to follow for me, and some movies in general. Chalk it up to good sound production and/or line delivery.

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Did anyone watch this thing?

Had I not seen the trailer I might have streamed this one eventually. Sadly, the trailer appeared to outline the movie completely, offering nothing to enjoy from a mystery; or that I'd have to sit through so much that was already shown for what twists might come up.

I enjoyed the original Dragon Tattoo more than the remake, for whatever that's worth. Similar to how Let the Right One In is superior to Let Me In, IMO. Could just be the timing of seeing one before the other, but I felt Fincher's version was more style than substance. At least that's what I remember of my reaction. I watched that one in theater so it's been a while!